Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/315577 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
I4R Discussion Paper Series No. 223
Publisher: 
Institute for Replication (I4R), s.l.
Abstract: 
Betthäuser et al. (2023) examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the learning progress of school-aged children. They collect 291 estimates from 42 studies. Their meta-analysis-corrected estimate implies a substantial decline in students' learning (Cohen's d = −0.14, 95% confidence interval −0.17 to −0.10). First, we successfully reproduce the main results and the majority of supporting figures. Second, we provide additional analysis addressing publication bias by implementing correction techniques: PET-PEESE (funnelbased), 3PSM (selection model), and RoBMA (model averaging). Additionally, we implement novel approaches that account for the strength of biased selection favoring affirmative results in the sample of analyzed studies. Third, we use techniques that assume the presence of p-hacking (MAIVE, RTMA). Using these methods, the corrected effect ranges from −0.25 to −0.11 with high statistical significance. While our analysis does reveal some evidence of selection bias in underlying data (primary studies), these phenomena do not appear to systematically distort the overall findings of the original study.
Subjects: 
Replication
Robustness
Meta-analysis
COVID-19
Education
Learning deficit
JEL: 
I21
I24
I28
C68
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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